The premise that athletes are stronger than ever holds especially true for baseball pitchers.
During spring training in the late 1990s, when Lou Piniella was managing the Mariners, the subject in his office turned to the many power arms in the organization. On the wall adjacent to him were the names of the 20 or so pitchers in camp, which Piniella consulted while breaking the list into two groups: Those whose velocity reached 90 mph, and those whose velocity didn’t.
About 10 of the pitchers had achieved the benchmark speed of 90 mph, reinforcing Piniella’s sense the Mariners were stocked with premium gas.